When I was young I saw some smaller boats, mostly under 25' long, that did not have self draining cockpits. They had a vinyl or rubber coated cloth liner for the cockpit well and if you shipped water you just lifted it up by a handle to drain the water over the side.

There's nothing like that on the Tums - just an open bilge with a bucket and bilge pump.. but the same goes for the old 6-metres, 22-square metres, Dragons, YW Diamonds, Couta boats, Mullet-boats, Cornish Shrimpers, etc., etc.., etc...

Like somebody famous once said: "The best bilge pump in the world is a frightened crew with a bucket"

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-"Honestly, I don't know why seamen persist in getting wrecked in some of the outlandish places they do, when they can do it in a nice place like Fiji." -- John Caldwell, "Desperate Voyage"

We all take self bailing cockpits for granted these days, but when I started sailing, the jury was still out on self bailing cockpits. The argument was that self bailing cockpit were much shallower than non self bailers and that the deeper cockpits were safer. Race boats like the Dragons, Luder 16, Folkboat, and many small cruisers were built with these deep cockpit.

A friend of mine sailed his Folkboat derivative with its non-bailing cockpit from England to France. When it came time for him to sail home the French authorities forbid him to leave and chained the boat to the dock as unsafe for the passage. His response occured after dark when he decided that he carried the big bolt cutters for reasons other than cutting away the rig after a demasting.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.Curmudgeon at Large- and rhinestone in the rough, sailing my Farr 11.6 on the Chesapeake Bay

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I, myself, personally intend to continue being outspoken and opinionated, intolerant of all fanatics, fools and ignoramuses, deeply suspicious of all those who have "found the answer" and on my bad days, downright rude.

__________________To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.Curmudgeon at Large- and rhinestone in the rough, sailing my Farr 11.6 on the Chesapeake Bay

Has there EVER been an advancement of any kind where there weren't a bunch of Luddites complaining about how it was going to ruin civilization?
....

Well, bucking bailing cockpits are certainly not an advancement on boat design but open cockpits (or semi-open) probably are, not to mention self bailing cockpits.

The complaints here respect not an improvement but the lack of it. They may been exaggerated regarding that particular boat but when I modified my traditional old 80 years sailboat to be more seaworthy one of the things I have done was providing it with a self bailing cockpit.

I was coming back from Canada, crossing the border and the US border agent asked me why I had been in Canada. I said what I always say, "I went to look at a boat."
He said, " What kind of construction.?
I said, "Composite, wood veneer over foam."
"He said, "That's not composite."

Then, pointing to my Scottish Glengarry he said, "What does that hat have to do with the boat?
I said, "Nothing. It's just my hat."

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